Posts tagged with "Cardio"

There’s nothing more frustrating than working out and not seeing the results you want. When you spend hours at the gym, that hard work can easily be undone by a few extra slices of pizza here and there. But, eating to lose weight is not as hard or complicated as one might think. You don’t have to starve, you don’t have to eliminate food groups (unless you have a food sensitivity) and you don’t have to crash diet. Applying a few basic principles to your daily meals can make a big difference.

Portion Control

The first principal is portion control.This is very important because you can overeat on healthy food too. We live in an age of super sized, oversized and family sized meals.The truth is we don’t need any where near as much at one meal as we are actually consuming.

Balanced Macronutrients

The second principal is balanced macronutrients. Don’t let the science terminology scare you, it just means having a balance between your lean protein, your healthy carbohydrates and your healthy fats. We usually don’t have an issue taking in carbohydrates or even fat for that matter but a lot of times it’s the wrong types of carbohydrates or fats. When it comes to protein a lot of people don’t eat it that much and when they do its in very large quantities, like a huge steak. Having a balance between these three macronutrients at each meal will help you lose weight.

Eliminating Processed Foods

Last but definitely not least, principal three, significantly reducing or eliminating highly processed foods especially those containing high amounts of processed sugars. The goal is to get back to natural, real food. Some foods that have been minimally processed are ok in moderation but the rest has to go if you want to lose weight. That doesn’t mean you can’t ever have a cookie or enjoy dessert, it just means that instead of buying the ones that can last a lifetime on a shelf, you make it at home with natural ingredients and no preservatives.

Autumn’s program Ultimate Portion Fix is an update of the classic Portion Fix program (that you may know and love) that has helped thousands understand the correct amount of food to eat. Ultimate Portion Fix has been perfected over the past five years, and is designed to help people understand the “why” behind what foods they put in their bodies.

About Autumn Calabrese

Celebrity trainer, best-selling author, and working mom Autumn Calabrese has created breakthrough fitness programs 80 Day Obsession®, 21 Day Fix®, 21 Day Fix EXTREME®, The Master’s Hammer and Chisel® and Country Heat®. She’s revolutionized the Beachbody fitness model with her simple approach to healthy eating.

Together with her chef brother, Bobby Calabrese, she authored the portion-control cookbook, FIXATE and hosts the cooking show by the same name that streams on Beachbody® On Demand. FIXATE features simple, delicious recipes, all perfectly portion-controlled and easy to make. Her goal as a health and fitness expert is to motivate and inspire people to make the lasting changes that will serve them and their families for the rest of their lives.

A premium nutrition program created by Autumn Calabrese using the strategies she’s learned to compete in fitness competitions and coach thousands of people to lose weight. The program teaches you portion control with the right amount of macronutrients to fuel your body. The Ultimate Portion Fix program will show you how to lose weight simply, and sustain it.

Yup, it’s true, “cardio is hardio.” I, for one, abhor the idea of spending hours on a treadmill or elliptical, which can torch a bunch of calories while you’re doing them, but which really don’t create a sustained, post-workout burn. But what if there was a way to get a days-long calorie burn that helped optimized fat loss—sound good? It’s possible!

If you want to lose fat (and weight), then you need to train with weights! It’s THAT simple, and the reason is that the recovery process from weightlifting is usually longer and more intensive—and thus requires more energy (and calorie burning!)—than from steady state cardio. Plus, muscle is more “metabolically active” than fat, so the more you gain from lifting weights, the more calories you’ll burn all day long.

Oh, you don’t want to look like a bodybuilder and have big, “bulky” muscles? Well that’s fine, because it’s not going to happen for most people, especially women. Studies show that while women can enjoy similar strength increases as men from weightlifting, they typically don’t see similar increases in muscle size. In short, they get all of the strength without the bulk. It’s a win-win. Most men will never reach bodybuilder status, either; it takes years of intense, focused training to get to that point. But guys, you can still build plenty of head-turning muscle with the right program.

So how do you get started? Find a trainer or streaming workout program that motivates you, and start LIGHT! If you are newer to lifting weights, you want to be sure to learn the proper mechanics (AKA form) before you start lifting heavy. The better your form is, the more effective your training will be, the faster you’ll reach your goals, and the fewer injuries you’ll have along the way. Easing into your training will also minimize the soreness that often comes with starting a new program (or switching up an existing one). But don’t let soreness deter you! Stretch, rest, hydrate, eat healthfully, and you’ll recover quickly and optimize your results. You can do it!

1 Set Micro Goals: Break your large goals into smaller steps. If you’d ultimately like to lose 100 pounds, start 10. If you’d like to cut out sugar, cut it out at a few meals first. If you’d like to make it in the gym 5/6 days a week over the next year, focus on making it 5/6 a week for the next month. Not only do micro-goals make your larger goals more manageable, they also give you a psychological confidence boost by achieving them.

3 Focus on the FOUR Pillars: There are four pillars – nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and stress. Focus on eating a nutrient rich diet that puts you in a caloric deficit (and drinking about a gallon of water), moving more than you normally would through exercise or activity, getting better, longer sleeps, and making efforts to reduce your stress. As you move closer to your goals and get a handle on those four basic tenants, you can start to focus on other variables. Nail the basics. THEN upgrade

Top 5 reasons why you need to strength train 2-4 times per week. By Beachbody Super Trainer and Creator of LIIFT4, Joel Freeman.

1. Effective Fat Loss: Weight training increases your body’s caloric burn during and after every session due to increased post exercise oxygen consumption. A cardio workout alone does not have this same effect. Strength training will also offset the negative outcomes that caloric restriction induces by telling your body to preserve and build muscle, preventing or reducing metabolic decline.

2. Muscle mass IS your metabolism—the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn at rest. After the age of 30, physically inactive people can lose 3-8% of their muscle mass each decade and can even increase after the age of 60! This results in a reduced metabolism, which makes it much easier to gain weight and result in limited physical ability to participate in daily activities like carrying grocery bags, cleaning the house, climbing a stair case, etc. Lifting weights is the most effective way to help our bodies preserve and build muscle as we age.

3. Carves Sexy Curves: Lifting maintains and builds new muscle that will help create an aesthetically pleasing hourglass shape: round shoulders, tight waist, and defined legs, perky rear, etc. While most men understand these benefits, women tend to fear becoming “bulky” if they lift weights. Women simply do not have enough natural testosterone to accomplish this. With proper diet, the result will always be sexy, tight curves.

4. Stress Relief & Improved Sleep: Just 5 minutes of exercise can trigger anti-anxiety responses in the body. Those who regularly strength train tend to manage stress better and experience fewer adverse reactions to stressful situations as those who do not. Since stress is a common cause of sleep issues, reducing stress can also improve your ability to fall asleep faster, sleep deeper and wake less often.

5. Boosts Confidence: If you’re not happy with yourself first, how can you be happy for anyone else? Self-confidence can lead to an overall healthier lifestyle and looking and feeling better is a great start to improve upon yourself, your relationships and work performance.

How to maximize your results in your sessions when you are strength training 2-4 times per week.

1. Weight training with enough intensity and selecting the right weights are essential to maximize the results. Lift 5 more pounds if your last set wasn’t challenging enough. It should be challenging! Progressive overload will keep your muscles engaged and advancing past plateaus. You are challenging your muscles, so they can grow and get stronger all while burning the maximum number of calories every workout.

2. Eat enough protein. Protein is the building block of muscle, and if you’re not getting enough your body can’t repair and build the muscle you’re asking it to after a strength training session. Try eating 0.8-1 gram of protein per pound you weigh every day. Select high quality proteins like lean meats, fish, eggs, dairy, beans, nuts & seeds, and even tofu. If you have a difficult time consuming enough protein from foods, add a protein shake as a snack or right after your weight training session.

3. Try to get 8 hours of sleep. Sleep is one of the times your body produces the most growth hormone, therefore the more sleep you get the faster your muscles will recover and build from weight training exercises.